Pipelines exist around many human activities. They are considered as a safe means of transportation for many products, including water, oil products, gas products, sewer, and slurries.
Occasionally, pipelines fail as a result of handling accidents, excavation activities, fatigue due to traffic on road and railway crossings, fabrication defects on base metal, welding defects, excessive bending loads, internal or external corrosion, etc.
Sometimes, pipelines are installed in difficult to reach areas, or areas that became difficult to reach due to population expansion over the years, pipelines installed in wetlands or subsea. In such cases, it would be best to reach the damaged area through the inner diameter by pumping the repair set to the area to be repaired. Sometimes, corrosion is widespread through the pipeline and the whole pipeline length needs remediation.
In some cases, there are external repair alternatives, however these are usually time consuming, expensive and in the case of subsea pipeline repair, may involve the mobilization of offshore going vessels, cranes and other costly appurtenances. For wetlands, sometimes there is a requirement for establishing a hyperbaric atmospheric chamber for welding work to take place.
Of paramount importance for repairs aimed at underwater repair is resistance to internal pressure and external pressure, including collapse of the repair sleeve or liner.
Prior art in this area includes a number of resin based repair systems (U.S. Pat. No. 9,261,217 B2—Expandable Pipeline Point-Repair Device, U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,377—Method of Repairing a Pipeline and Apparatus for Use in Such a Method, U.S. Pat. No. 5,765,597—Apparatus for Repairing a Pipeline and Method for Using Same, U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,663—Apparatus for Repairing a Pipeline and Method for Using Same, U.S. Pat. No. 6,105,619—Apparatus for Repairing a Pipeline and Method for Using Same, U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,591 B1—Method of Using Detachable Lines for Positioning Pipeline Repair Liner, U.S. Pat. No. 5,351,720—Apparatus for Repairing Conduits, U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,395—Apparatus and Method for Repairing Underground Conduits in Situ, U.S. Pat. No. 6,138,718—Apparatus and Method for Repairing Pressure Pipes and U.S. Pat. No. 7,987,873 B2—Device and Method for Repairing Pipe), or bladder based systems (U.S. Pat. No. 6,641,687 B2—Apparatus for Repairing a Pipeline and Method for Using Same and U.S. Pat. No. 7,717,137 B2—Internal Pipe Repair Method and Device), or tape application systems (U.S. Pat. No. 8,925,590 B2—Pipeline Leak Detection and Repair Device), or heat expandable polymers (U.S. Pat. No. 4,197,880—Sealing and Insulating Article and Method) or thin spiral rolled sheets (U.S. Pat. No. 5,042,532—Expandable Tube Apparatus for Repairing Pipelines and U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,862—Conduit Repair Apparatus), sometimes aided by expanding internal sheets which slide over ratchets, and in some other cases based on installing liners against the inner wall of the pipeline to be repaired (U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,539—Liner for Pipeline Repair and Method for Repairing Pipelines and U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,377—Method of Repairing a Pipeline and Apparatus for Use in Such a Method). There exist a need for improved collapse resistant, high pressure and temperature oil and gas pipelines remediation methods and systems.